Maryland replaces Ohio in Big 33 game

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s annual cross-border high school football grudge match will center on the Mason-Dixon Line for the next five years.

The Big 33 Scholarship Foundation on Wednesday announced a new agreement to pit the Pennsylvania’s top prep talent against the best Maryland has to offer.

For the last 19 years the all-star contest has featured squads from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Pennsylvania and Maryland previously met eight times between 1985 and 1992.

The annual contest is staged in Hershey. Big 33 officials cited the game’s proximity to Maryland as a contributing factor in the decision to renew the rivalry.

The next Big 33 game is scheduled for June 15.

 

UConn graduation rate at 11 percent

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — The NCAA says that Connecticut’s basketball program — already banned from the postseason for failing to meet other academic standards — has a Graduation Success Rate of just 11 percent.

The GSR, released Thursday, measures the percentage of student-athletes earning diplomas at a school over a six-year period. This year’s numbers are for the classes that entered school from 2002 to 2005.

UConn’s 11 percent was far below the national average of 68 percent for men’s basketball.

Athletic Director Warde Manual, who took that job this year, says the school is committed to improving the program’s academic performance and already has implemented changes that are designed to do that.

He pointed to improvements last year in the program’s Academic Progress Rate as a sign that those changes are working.

UConn also pointed out that 14 of its 19 athletic programs have Graduation Success Rates at or above the national average.

 

Southern Miss QB’s mother arrested

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — The mother of a University of Southern Mississippi quarterback was arrested Saturday at the school’s football game after arguing with another fan who berated her son’s play.

Lawanda Ann Alford, 38, was booked into Forrest County Jail Saturday for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the Hattiesburg American reports, after Hattiesburg Police arrested her at M.M. Roberts Stadium.

Alford is freshman quarterback Anthony Alford’s mother. The freshman started Saturday’s game, but injured his foot in the third quarter, and left with the Golden Eagles trailing 45-17 to Marshall University. USM went on to lose 59-24.

Lawanda Alford was ejected from a Petal High School baseball playoff game in the spring for coming onto the field and yelling at an umpire after her son was ejected for arguing a called third strike.

 

NBA commissioner will retire in 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — NBA Commissioner David Stern will retire in February 2014, 30 years after he took charge of the league. He will be replaced by Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver.

The announcement came at an NBA Board of Governors meeting Thursday.

Stern, who turned 70 last month, became commissioner on Feb. 1, 1984. He has been the league’s longest-serving commissioner, guiding the league through growth around the world.

 

LeMond: cycling leaders are corrupt

NEW YORK (AP) — Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond is urging the leaders of cycling’s governing body to resign, calling them “the corrupt part of the sport.”

LeMond posted an open letter on his Facebook page Wednesday night that asked those who care about cycling to join him in telling International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid and honorary president Hein Verbruggen to step down.

LeMond’s letter came three days after Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for his involvement in what a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report described as a massive doping program.

Verbruggen led world cycling from 1991-2005, the era when Armstrong won his titles. Verbruggen still sits on the UCI board.

LeMond says the problem for the sport is not drugs but corruption, telling McQuaid, “Pat in my opinion you and Hein are the corrupt part of the sport.”